Places I've hung out in, sometimes briefly.

Diamond G Fabrics (along with Diamond G Farm and Diamond G Aviation, and, maybe, others) were all established by the Austin family of Greeneville TN. This family kick-started the rise of Greeneville to being, at one time, one of the largest tobacco markets in the nation. Apparently, Clyde Austin was quite the businessman. And many thanks to the antique dealer in Greeneville who gave me this card. The Diamond G logo can be seen above the “AUSTIN” on at least two prominent brick smokestacks in the downtown area.

Taken 9/2/17. It was overcast and drizzling, but the water coming down the front of the dam looked like snow. I took this picture from the middle of the 2005 bridge. The earlier bridge, built in 1937, about 10 years before this dam was constructed, was named in honor of Oscar Byrd Lovette – lawyer, Republican, banker – who defeated Carroll Reece in 1930 for the 1st District seat in the U. S. Congress. Reece came back to defeat Lovette in 1933.
The place where the earlier picture was taken is no longer accessible.

This is in Abingdon. The sign in the picture on the left faces the Porterfield Highway; the sign on the right, Russell Road.

It’s a typical former tobacco warehouse, probably built in the late 30s. It burned down in the ’50s and was rebuilt in this configuration. The last tobacco auction was held here in 2005.

It’s got plenty of room for vendors. According to the owner, they have had flea markets here for ages in the off periods from March through August. “Then we’d move the vendors out for the auctions,” the owner said. At times, part of it was also leased out to companies for storage use.

This card shows a tobacco auction sale at a warehouse in South Boston VA. According to the note on the back, the auction started on September 23, 1946. It’s a “Natural Finish” card made by Graycraft Card Co., Danville, Va. Interesting, because Danville was one of the early tobacco markets in the southeast.

This is the only card I have that shows a tobacco auction in progress.

I got interested in the tobacco auctions, long gone since 2005 or so, after I chatted with the owner of a former warehouse. Tobacco warehouses and auctions and allotments…these were just part of the landscape that I barely noticed growing up. I tied some tobacco for drying once when I was a kid. My hands and anything else that came in contact with the leaves got all tarry. Hello, Lava soap! Luckily, we didn’t grow tobacco and I managed to avoid that duty again.

Morristown, New Tazewell, Johnson City, Mountain City, Greeneville (among many others) were large markets. Tobacco was a huge cash crop. The tobacco would be harvested in July or August, then wrapped in bundles and hung on rods in barns to air dry (there were other ways to do this).

The auctions in this area ran from October to late January. Professional graders and auctioneers would go from town to town to take care of it all. Literally millions of pounds of tobacco would be bought by the big companies, re-dried and packed in hogsheads for shipping by rail or trucks. If it had been a good year, the farmer took home enough money to do Christmas and get through to the next year.

Then it all went to hell. The major companies decided to deal directly with the farmers on a contract basis, the campaign against tobacco use got serious, and the federal government politely stepped away from the whole thing. Tobacco is still grown. We have good soil for Burley.

White Burley tobacco (for all intents and purposes, the “cigarette tobacco”) originated in Ohio (natural mutation) in the late 1800s. In 1884, the Duke family in North Carolina let loose a cascade of perfectly rolled machine-made cigarettes. R. J. Reynolds introduced Camel cigarettes in 1913 and need for good “Virginia” burley (bright) to blend with Turkish tobacco increased, prompting farmers in this area to go for it. And the tobacco companies spent fortunes in advertising their products. Literally millions and millions of pounds of tobacco changed hands each of the years that smoking was rampant.

Mid-1930s to early 2000s. Now the warehouses are either gone or used for storage and/or flea markets.

Centre Brick Indoor Flea Market, on Main Street, New Tazewell TN (Facebook) (page hasn’t been updated in a year).

Around 1925 or so, a trio of businessmen, led by Sam Duncan, went to LaFollette to buy an abandoned steel foundry. They had it broken down and shipped to New Tazewell. It was reassembled (on a new foundation) to form a 15,000 sq. ft. tobacco warehouse, the first in New Tazewell. At the height of the tobacco trade (1950s), there were seven warehouses in the town. 15,000 sq. ft., btw, is about the size of a modern, free-standing outlet like a CVS or a Walgreen’s.
This probably was the Centre Brick Tobacco Warehouse, dating from the 1930s and originally twice the size it is now. Half of the warehouse was torn down to provide parking space for the customers.

Above: an interior aisle.

The flea market is managed by Tom McLaughlin. He says it’s busier when the temperatures get a little brisk for the outdoor flea markets. Incidentally, I remarked to Tom about the sturdy timbers that make up parts of the floor . He said the wood was so old and dense that it’s difficult to get a nail into it.

The R. O. Giles Flea Market, an “old fashioned flea market”, according to manager Mike Beeler, is about 5 miles north of Tazewell on 25 North. The flea market has been in this location for over 40 years. Here are some pictures taken in August, 2017:

This is one of many GE water pumps rusting away in the abandoned Carter County Water Works in Elizabethton TN. This facility shows up on the 1935 topo map of Elizabethton, so that’s a firm date. The Bemberg plant was beginning to produce artificial silk in 1926. Artificial fiber plants need lots of water, so I think this water works was built originally to provide service to Bemberg and, a year later, to the North American Rayon Corporation.

Nolichucky Dam, Greene County TN. I found this in a plastic bag of old photos I picked up at an antique store. This is a small picture: the picture itself (without the margins) is just 3″ x 2″.

A very similar picture is shown on the Tennessee Archives website. That picture is dated to 1946. This would have been shortly after TVA acquired the dam, which began operating in 1913. In 1972, after too much sediment built up in Davy Crockett Lake to allow electrical generation, TVA shut the dam down and removed the equipment.

I read that there have been attempts to convert the dam into some sort of tourist attraction, but, to date, TVA is not amused.

If you’re not familiar with this lake at Warriors’ Path State Park in Kingsport TN, the view is of an inlet where the marina is situated (it’s to the right, out of the picture). The main lake is to the left (also out of the picture). Then, with all that missing, why did I take the picture here? I liked the tree in the foreground.

Vicco was once a happenin’ place. When the Virginia Iron Coal and Coke Company (VICCO) was working full time, this town was where the miners let off a little steam. This was once a movie theater catering to that fun bunch: